Description
The Kitanemuk are an indigenous people of California. They traditionally lived in the Tehachapi Mountains and the Antelope Valley area of the western Mojave Desert of southern California, United States. Today some Kitanemuk people are enrolled in the federally recognized Tejon Indian Tribe of California. The Kitanemuk were first contacted by the Franciscan missionary-explorer Francisco Garcés in 1769. Some Kitanemuk were recruited and relocated for the Spanish missions of Mission San Fernando Rey de España in the San Fernando Valley, Mission San Gabriel Arcángel in the San Gabriel Valley, and perhaps Mission San Buenaventura at the coast in Ventura County. Therefore, they are sometimes grouped with the Mission Indians.
Language
Kitanemuk was a Northern Uto-Aztecan language of the Serran branch.
Culture
The Kitanemuk were dependant on acorns from the abundant oak in the western portion of their range facing the San Joaquin Valley, and pinon pine nuts found on the slopes on the eastern side of the range, facing the desert. The Kitanemuk, like the Kawaiisu, lived in permanent villages during the winter consisting of groups of 50 to 80 people or more. Other times of the year, these communities would disperse into smaller groups visiting various food-producing habitats as the plants became ready to harvest.